Apple’s Low Power Mode can stretch your Apple Watch battery for hours longer, but there’s a price.
It switches off features that make the watch worth wearing in the first place, including the always-on display and continuous heart rate tracking.
Fortunately, a few smaller settings can free up extra battery life without making your watch feel like a stripped-down version of itself.
Stop apps from quietly draining your battery all day
The biggest hidden battery drain isn’t your display. It’s often the apps you forgot were running.
By default, many Apple Watch apps regularly wake up in the background to check for new information.
News apps fetch fresh headlines. Other apps sync data even when you haven’t opened them for hours. Individually, the impact is small, but together they can steadily chip away at your battery.
Most people won’t notice any downside after turning Background App Refresh off. The only difference is that some apps may take an extra second or two to load the latest information when you open them.
If you’d rather keep your battery than have apps constantly updating behind the scenes, this is one of the easiest changes you can make.
Open Settings > General > Background App Refresh to disable it.
Also: Apple’s next iPad mini could make thousands of recent buyers wish they had waited a little longer
Make the interface look almost the same while using less power
Apple loves smooth animations. Every time you open an app, swipe between screens, or navigate menus, your watch plays dozens of subtle visual effects.
They look polished, but they also require extra processing every single day. Turning on Reduce Motion removes many of those animations.
The change is surprisingly subtle. After a few minutes, most people barely notice the difference, but your watch has fewer visual effects to render throughout the day, helping conserve battery without affecting any major feature.
You’ll find it under Settings > Accessibility > Reduce Motion.
Get the full battery you paid for
If you’ve ever taken your Apple Watch off the charger and wondered why it stopped at 80%, this setting is probably responsible.
Optimized Charge Limit is designed to reduce long-term battery wear by preventing the watch from charging all the way to 100% in certain situations. That can be helpful if you’re thinking years ahead.
It can also leave you starting the day with less battery than you actually need. If making it through a long workday, a workout, or a weekend trip matters more than squeezing every possible year out of the battery, turning this feature off lets your watch charge completely again.
You’ll find it under Settings > Battery > Battery Health.
One important trade-off deserves attention. Charging to 100% more often can increase battery wear over time.
Since newer Apple Watches can recharge from empty to full in roughly an hour, it’s a good idea to unplug the watch once it’s finished charging instead of leaving it connected for long periods, especially overnight.
